 |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||
|
December 24, 2002 South Georgia Sunrise: 3:57am Morning – Godthul Halleluiah! Dry land!!!!! Not to mention fur seals, elephant seals, and Gentoo penguins. The landing was sad and surprising. Sad, because what appeared to be pebbles and logs on the beach are actually hundreds and hundreds of whale bones. Surprising, because we didn’t realize that penguins and seals live together in such harmony. It’s quite interesting to watch. Interesting to listen to – we’ve heard the penguins vocalize before, but hadn’t heard the seals. They don’t vocalize. They fart. LOUDLY. And add quite a bit to the ambiance. The irony of penguins and seals nesting in the remains of a whaling station where they would probably have been boiled down along with the whales 50 years ago is not lost. Far more enjoyable to see live seals and penguins nesting here. The penguins and seals are very curious. IAATO guidelines tell us that we must stay 5 meters away from them. But they apparently didn’t read them. Sitting quietly in a spot usually causes the little guys to come over and investigate.
We did miss seeing the herd of reindeer – three days without food has definitely impacted my stamina and I just couldn’t bring myself to do a major hike. But friends were kind enough to give us photos! Given the date, we hope that Rudolph is one of them!
|
|||||
|
|||||
